The Balloon Glow served as the third event of the 2024 Gaslight Festival on Saturday night at Skyview park in Jeffersontown. Families gathered to enjoy food, face painting, bouncy houses, and watch as the balloons lit up the night.
A balloon glow is when the burners of hot air balloons are lit and the balloons inflate, but don’t take flight. As the balloons sit together on the field, they give off the appearance of glowing lanterns. Due to the wind, only two balloons were actually blown up. The other balloons were lit in what is called a “candlestick glow”. This is where the burners are lit, but there is no balloon attached.
The Gaslight Festival is a yearly festival held in Jeffersontown by the Jeffersontown Chamber and the City of Jeffersontown. The festival has different events everyday until Sept. 15, celebrating local food, art and more leading up to Gaslight Festival Weekend. Gaslight Festival Weekend, Sept. 13 through 15, is the main event of the festival. The Balloon Glow is one of the most popular events, with seven or eight thousand people attending, according to Deana Karem, president and CEO of the Jeffersontown Chamber. This year, the Balloon Glow was sponsored by US Bank.
The wind impacting the event did not prevent people from enjoying themselves. Kimberly Hooker and her family attended the event for the first time, and felt that getting to spend time with each other was the best part of the night.
Those who worked the festival also enjoyed the evening. Some, like Scott Keeling, an ambassador to the Chamber, have worked the event several times in the past. Keeling has always enjoyed the festivities and watching the community come together at the Balloon Glow.
Kacey Kraus, Communications and Events Manager of the Jeffersontown Chamber, was working the event for the first time.
“Seeing all the community come out on this gorgeous day, we couldn’t ask for more perfect weather. Seeing everybody get their face painted and checking all the food members out and various other vendors and sponsors and things like that,” Kraus said, “You know we plan this festival 365 days out of the year, so it’s really fun to kind of see it kind of come together.”
In the past, the Balloon Glow has been held closer to the end of the festival. To avoid conflicts with other events, it was decided to move the popular event to the first day instead. Kraus doesn’t think the new date affected attendance of the event. In fact, in the days leading up to the event, the leadership of the Jeffersontown Chamber believed that this year’s Balloon Glow was going to be better than previous years.
“Don’t get me wrong, the quality was good last year, but we actually have a full staff this year,” Karem said, “I think having all of the staff there is a big, big help just to enhance the overall experience for the people that attend.”
